A Slice of Time
by Korsriddare
Summary: Eirika finds Tana practicing in the castle garden. Gift-fic. Prompt: soothing of a scrapped knee. Eirika, Tana. Oneshot.


**Title:** A Slice of Time  
**Author:** Korsriddare  
**Characters/Pairings:** Tana, Eirika  
**Prompt:** Soothing of a scrapped knee  
**Note**: Fic written for crimsonmorgan at fe-exchange on LJ

* * *

"As the heirs of our nations, we obviously should be on the front-lines, but minimize our time in melee so that our retainers will not lose their morale should anything happen to us."

"You are such a wuss, Innes."

"Sarcasm aside, my point is thus that a bow is a weapon more practical for us to use."

"That wasn't sarcasm!"

Eirika sighed softly from her side at the table. That always happened between her brother and Prince Innes whenever they started talking. They could go from talking about local food in either country to arguing about who has the better weapon within a few moments.

She even used to be worried once about it, but Seth had assured her that it was not uncommon between boys of that age – and they were actually close, despite the arguments. That would not have been convincing coming from anyone else, but he was Seth!

And so boys would be boys, she concluded.

The fourteen years-old princess of Renais left the private library as it seemed that there was still much time left before their argument ended. Castle Frelia was impressively built and large, but thankfully it was not too hard to navigate about, and soon she found herself nearing Tana's favorite garden. She knew that unlike her brother, Tana wanted to be a pegasus knight since she had known her.

_Probably practicing with a spear._

Eirika was proven right as she rounded the corner of a corridor to see a wooden-tipped spear swinging about above the flora of the castle garden.

"Tana!" She waved as she walked quickly.

"Hey Eirika!" The swinging of the spear stopped as the blue-haired princess swiped the sleeve of her blouse across her forehead. She grinned as she lowered the spear, "My dear brother arguing with Ephraim again?"

"Yes. Boys."

A resigned sigh.

"Boys."

They then grinned at each other before Tana spoke up excitedly, her hands gripping the spear tightly," I learned some moves from Syrene! Want to take a look?"

Eirika nodded. She knew how seriously Tana took her training, even if it was not exactly met with enthusiastic approval from Innes or King Hayden. They allowed Dame Syrene to train her and that was about it. Not like her brother, who actually taught her some swordsmanship. To be fair though, she probably would learn more from someone like Seth since Ephraim was training mainly in lances too.

Hmm. Tana chose the same weapon as Ephraim. Coincidence?

She shook her head mentally as she settled down on a stone chair to watch. The Frelian princess readied her spears and shifted her feet into a proper opening stance before she started a series of moves. It incorporated both thrusts and swings and looked really nice to Eirika's eyes.

It was true that she did not know much about those moves, but she thought it did not seem too different when she accompanied Ephraim in his training. Still, she preferred a sword. She had seen Seth practiced before and thought it a graceful weapon. He did become a knight due to his prowess in both swords and lances, so a sword must be a practical weapon too.

Tana appeared to have trained hard, she thought as the moves continued. _I must do my best too!_ It was then that the girl's appeared to have slipped on the pavement as she fell forward.

Eirika rushed from the chair as she came to Tana's side. Her friend managed to soften the impact by releasing the spear and landing on her hands and knees, though her left knee seemed to be scrapped and was bleeding lightly.

"Tana! Are you alright?"

The teal-haired girl brought an arm around her friend's shoulders as she helped her to the chair. Tana smiled weakly, "I'm… fine. Though it kind of hurts. A little?"

Eirika did not hesitate as she pulled out a handkerchief and knelt down to clean the wound. She was not quite sure if that was the accurate way to do things, but cleaning the dirt off the wound could not be too wrong, right?

She looked up at Tana with a smile. "I am surprised none of your retainers are bursting out of the ground to tend to you."

A dismissive snort was the initial reply. "I would have you know that my retainers treat me with enough dignity to not baby me over a scrapped knee."

"Two years ago…"

"That was a broken ankle, and I was still a child!"

She tried her best to sound unconvinced," If you say so…"

Unable to keep a straight face anymore, Eirika burst out laughing shortly before Tana joined her. She somehow managed to clean off the wound amidst the laughter and stood up.

"There! All done. We should probably get you to the infirmary though, just in case."

Tana nodded, "Best to get a healer to heal it lest my brother kicks up a fuss. And thank you, Eirika."

"He is probably too busy arguing with Ephraim, those dorks." She did smile, however.

"Come on, let's go."


End file.
